Vegan Sweet Potato Lasagna

This tastes so much better than it may sound! It's an awesome Vegan recipe! You won't miss the cheese or meat. This recipe is based from the Engine 2 Diet but I changed it up a bit.

Ingredients:

1 Onion, chopped

4 Cloves Garlic, chopped

8 ounces Mushrooms, sliced

4-5 cups steamed Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots

1 teaspoon Oregano 

1 teaspoon Basil

1 teaspoon Parsley

2 jars Pasta Sauce or make your own, (2 jars if your use uncooked pasta, only one if using cooked pasta)

1 pound Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles, uncooked or cooked it's up to you

1 cup Frozen Spinach, thawed and drained ( I tried to squeeze out as much water as possible)

3 Large Sweet Potatoes, baked and mashed

6-8 Roma Tomatoes, sliced thin

-Start by baking your sweet potatoes first. Scoop out and mash by hand or mixer. You can do this ahead of time or use left overs that what I did. 

- Steam your Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrots. I used left over vegetables. 

- In a large pan I put a little water with Oregano, Basil and Parsley and added the sliced Mushrooms and Onions. Just keep adding a little water as needed. Then add the steamed vegetables and mix with the mushroom and onions. 

-Cover the bottom of your pan with your pasta sauce. 

- Add a layer of noodles and sauce. Use a lot of sauce if uncooked. 

-Next put all the steamed veggie, mushroom, onion mixture on top. I put all of it on this layer

-Add another layer of noodles and more sauce, just remember add a lot of sauce if using uncooked pasta

-Evenly distribute the spinach next.

-Now add the mashed sweet potatoes, all of them

- On top the sweet potatoes add sauce, noodles and more sauce

- The last topping - add your thinly sliced Roma Tomatoes

Cover and Bake for about an hour in a preheated over to 400 degrees. The last 15 minutes of baking time take the foil off. Let it rest about 15 minutes before cutting and serving. I used a baking pan that is a little larger than an 9x12. 

DIY Egg Basket Chandelier!

We found an old egg basket in the barn and have held onto it for years. It's worn and beat up and not the best for collecting fresh farm eggs anymore. We thought of a great idea to turn it into a chandelier. We travel all over Ohio attending gift and trade shows and thought what a great light fixture for our booth.

It's really easy to make! Look for a wire basket you like and fill it with string lights. Include bulbs if you want to fill in the basket with extra decor. It's so easy and fun! If you try it share your photos with us. We'd love see what your design! It's an easy, inexpensive "do it yourself" project.

What is GMO?

Read all about it.
By now you've heard a lot about GMO and you've heard us talking about it. A year ago we switched our goats to NON GMO grains. It's a personal choose and one we feel everyone has the right to do. That's not to say I don't go out to eat with friends and still consume GMO foods. I'm sure I do. We buy and grown NON GMO foods for our household.
But we thought we'd just shed a little light on what GMO is for those who aren't as familiar.
GMO stands for genetically modified organism. It's also called GE, genetic engineering or GM, genetic modification. All three are the same just different names.
GMO is a laboratory process of taking genes from one species and inserting them into another.

The process for GMO is completely different than grafting (trees for example), cross breeding (breeding a Nubian goat with a Toggenburg goat for example) or hybridizing seeds (beefsteak tomato for example).
Genetic engineers have found ways to force the DNA from one organism into another. The results are plants or animals with traits that would be virtually impossible to obtain with natural processes like cross breeding or grafting.

Here's a short list of some the high risk crops in commercial production.

• Alfalfa (first planting 2011)
• Canola (approx. 90% of U.S. crop)
• Corn (approx. 88% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Cotton (approx. 90% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Papaya (most of Hawaiian crop; approximately 988 acres)
• Soy (approx. 94% of U.S. crop in 2011)
• Sugar Beets (approx. 95% of U.S. crop in 2010)
• Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash (approx. 25,000 acres)

When we first switched our goats’ grain we started mixing our own and thought we were choosing NON GMO grains. Our goats would eat all the grain in their bowl expect the Alfalfa. I wondered why they were avoiding only the Alfalfa. I called our local feed supply company and told them our list of ingredients in our mixture and asked which of these grains are GMO. They told us the only one that was GMO was the alfalfa. Pretty amazing if our goats are given a choice they choose NON GMO. Since then we started buying our grain from a feed supplier near Berlin, Ohio that sells certified NON GMO grains.

There's a growing awareness of what's being introduced into our food source and we'll keep up on the growing concern. We hope that you will do as us and try to read through the myths and truth about GMO foods. We're not saying don't eat it. We just feel like you and I have a right to know what we eat and can make our own decisions.

Eggcellent Gardening Tips!

If you haven’t started saving eggshells yet get crackin’. Your tomato plants will love you for it. I save eggshells all year round. Not only for our Nitty Gritty soap (an after the garden best friend) but for our tomato plants as well. They love the calcium that the ground eggshells provide. Just rinse the shells with warm water set on a paper towel to dry. When it’s time to plant put the shells right down in the ground with your tomato plant. 

But don’t stop there! Keep saving because you can put all the extra shells in empty milk jugs, fill with water and water your plants with a natural calcuim rich fertilizer. 

Have a problem with slugs around your lettuce? Sprinkle your ground eggshells on top the ground around the lettuce plants! Problem solved!

Dig in and have fun! 

Featured Ingredient - Coconut Oil

 Coconut Oil

Origin

Coconut is a member of the palm family. The term is derived from 16^th century Poruguese and Spanish coco, meaning “head” or skull”

Coconuts are a great super food. Every part of a coconut can be used. Coconuts can be used from cooking to cleaning to cosmetics.

Cooking with coconut has many benefits. Coconut oil actually lowers cholesterol. Recent studies have shown that coconut oil helps our body metabolize cholesterol faster. If that’s not enough to convince you to switch to coconut oil in your diet, it helps with weight loss! Coconut oil helps improve thyroid function. A thyroid that isn't working properly is one of the main causes of obesity. Cultures that use coconut oil for cooking have a lower rate of obesity. Coconut oil contains healthy saturated fats that prevent foods from becoming incompletely digested.

Now, why do we use coconut oil in our soaps and body products? It’s simple really. Coconut oil is like the fountain of youth. Your skin benefits from the natural ability in coconut oil to fight free radicals. Coconut oil helps prevent wrinkles and sagging skin.  It provides our skin with a natural moisturizer and softens dry skin. The use of coconut oil in our soaps helps produce natural suds so no synthetic foaming agent in needed.

Most local grocery stores carry coconut oil. Get some and try your own homemade recipes for cooking or cosmetics. You can mix baking soda and coconut oil for toothpaste. Rub some on poison ivy to help relieve the itching. Heat a little and use as a makeup remover. Just get it a little warm rub on your finger tips and gently massage away makeup. 

Basics for Butter Making

The equipment can be as simple as a mason jar. You can use a blender or mixer as well.

This is a fun project for kids. They can see cream turn into butter.  You can use cow or goat milk. We use goat milk which requires us to use a cream separator.

You don’t have to have a cream separator. You can allow the goat milk to sit in the refrigerator and after some time the cream will naturally rise. I don’t prefer this because I think it gives the butter a stronger, ripe taste.

If you don’t have goats and you want to make butter you can always buy cream at the store.

For the jar method you can use any size of jar. I wouldn’t fill the jar more than half way. Overfilling will not allow enough room for agitation.  For little kids I would recommend a baby food jar or a small canning jar. Use something that will fit comfortable in their hands.

The temperature of the cream should be about 55° for goat milk and 60° for cow milk.

Put the lid on your jar and shake back and forth. If can take anywhere from 7 minutes to 30 depending on how big your jar is and how much you have in the jar.

You will see a mass forming in the jar and will feel the butter falling back and forth. There will still be liquid in the jar. This is buttermilk, which you will drain off.

After draining the buttermilk off run cold water and rinse the butter inside your jar with cold water until the water pours out clear.

Drain the butter. Put a plate and use a spoon to work the rest of the liquid out of the butter. You don’t want to leave liquid in the butter or it will cause it to spoil.

If you want salted butter you can add salt as you are working the rest of the liquid out.

Refrigerate or freeze.

If you use a mixer make sure you put a splash guard over the mixer and a towel. You will need to whip the cream which will come to a whip cream stage but keep going until it forms butter than you rinse and drain and work the liquid out just the same as the jar method.